CHAPTER 1
"Willow? Rye?" I called. "Willow!" panic started rising inside my chest, "Rye!" I felt a pair of warm hands rest on my tense shoulders.
"Katniss, relax" The voice soothed, "They're over there, with Haymitch, look." I turned my head to the right to see a slightly wobbly man leading my two children over the grassy square towards our house. The tightening in my chest eased and I found myself releasing a sigh. Years have passed since we were ruled by those who would harm us and I still couldn't get used to the idea that my family and I are safe.
"Look Mom! Granddad showed us how to make daisy chains!" Willow ran over to me, her blonde wavy hair, the spitting image of both Peeta and Prim, streaming out behind her. Willow and Rye have called Haymitch their Granddad since they could talk. With no biological grandfathers left, Peeta suggested we approach Haymitch about whether he'd like the title. When we had returned to district 12 after the uprising, he had spent most of his time locked inside of his house, preferring the darkness to what may lay outside. Peeta and I had forced ourselves into his house more than once to try and coax him out. When Willow had been born, we had taken her to visit him in the hope she'd make him happy. He'd bonded with her almost instantly.
Almost every day after he'd knock on our front door at 10:00 sharp, asking whether he could feed her. Peeta would take his note pad and go to the forest to draw, leaving Haymitch, Willow and I in the house. Once she was fed, we'd sit in the plush chairs in the living room, Willow cradled in Haymitch's arms as she fell asleep. We never spoke much. There was too much to say and too many painful memories it would bring up. Occasionally he'd tell me about his childhood, his family, and once he'd even told me about his reaping. But never did we mention the games, his or ours, and what had followed. Peeta told him we'd like him to be Grandfather a few months after he'd started visiting. It was the happiest I'd seen him in years, although he'd tried to cover it with a sarcastic remark. He'd taken both kids out today, down to woods.
He came wheezing up to us now. "Those kids are getting too fast for me now, they had me running all around the meadow" Peeta laughed behind me and I let a smile creep across my face.
"You need the workout; they're doing you a favour"
"You watch what you're saying girl." He pointed his grubby finger at me, making me chuckle.
"C'mon guys, inside, I made cake." Peeta said, ushering the excitable children into the house. Peeta's cakes were a delicacy all across Panem. A train would collect boxes of his biscuits and cupcakes every month and deliver them to every district. Whenever there was a birthday or wedding in district 12, he'd spend hours crafting shapes and swirls of all colours out of icing and would create the most amazing scenes. Sometimes he'd recreate the forests, or sometimes use the buildings in the Capitol as his inspiration, but whatever he based it on, it was sure to take your breath away.
"Are you coming in Haymitch?" I asked.
"No, I've got something to do at home," he hesitated, "It's important." The way he was nervously twisting his hands worried me.
"Haymitch, what is it?"
"Nothing, nothing." He started backing away from the door, "It's nothing." He turned with a little half wave and walked back across the green. I stood and watched him until he reached his door on the other side of the victors village.
"Mom!" I snapped away from the door and turned to see Rye smiling up at me. He was holding a slice of cake in his hand, jam smeared all over his fingers, blue icing around his lips. "Come see what Dad made!" I followed him into the kitchen where a round cake sat in the middle of the wooden table. It was covered in sea blue icing, with a small wooden boat in the middle. Peeta had made a young man to sit in the boat. He had blonde hair and tanned skin. Finnick. It looked like a replica of him, only smaller and in icing form. The children were 'ooh'-ing and 'ahh'-ing over him, marvelling over the tiny fishing rod Peeta had given him.
It wasn't the first time Peeta had done something like this. Willows last birthday cake had involved a princess, who Willow was sure was her, but I knew was meant to be Prim. The tall, strong man who was hunting in the woods who had been put on Rye's last birthday cake couldn't have been anyone but Gale. Rue, Effie and Cinna had all appeared in the stories Peeta had drawn for them. Although the children wouldn't understand who they were, Peeta thought it would be a good idea for the children to be able to see those who had so strongly impacted our lives. I didn't agree. I didn't want my past to continue into my present. Haymitch understood. It was an unspoken mutual understanding between us. Our memories were more vivid than Peeta's, after the capitol had tortured him, he didn't remember just how terrible it all had been.
"Do you like it?" Peeta said, looking directly into my eyes. He looked amazing with the sunlight steaming through the window. It highlighted his blonde hair and made his eyes sparkle. The worry on his face that maybe he'd crossed the line this time melted my heart. I strode across the room and wrapped my arms around his hard chest.
"It's beautiful" I whispered. "Rye, has Daddy told you what this little man is called?" He shook his head. "This is Finnick, and he's the best fisherman in all of Panem." Rye turned to Willow and they started talking all about the little man and what he was catching. In the background, I heard the phone ring. I stood up and walked into the little study to get it.
"Katniss speaking" I said.
"Katniss, you need to come to the Capitol!" The voice sounded familiar, but I couldn't work where from. "It's urgent, we need you and Peeta now!"
"Who is this?" I said shakily.
"Katniss, you need to come to the Capitol! The voice repeated, "It's urgent, we need you and Peeta now!" I had to listen to the voice three more times before I realised it was a recorded message. The phone slipped from my hand onto the wooden floor and I ran back into the kitchen.
"Katniss, are you okay?" Peeta said frowning. I couldn't form a reply. I stood frozen, my mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water.
"L-l-look" I stammered, pointing out of the window. A large hovercraft with the Capitols seal on it was lowering into our garden.
"Get Haymitch!" Peeta screamed at me. But I couldn't do anything. I could hear Willow trying to talk to me and Rye crying, but I couldn't move. My eyes were locked on the opening door of the hovercraft, and the young woman stepping out of it. She had ice white hair in a high ponytail, and a tight fitting army outfit, and looked scarily like someone I should know. Peeta was still screaming at me but the way the woman glared at me stopped me from doing anything. All the noise around me disappeared as I focused on placing this woman. She was younger than me, must have still been young during the uprising. She raised her hand and a previously unseen man passed her a bow, already strung with a silver arrow. She pointed it towards me. Snow. It clicked in my head. How could she be related to anyone else? It was President Snow's granddaughter.
Peeta grabbed my arm to pull me towards the front door where Willow and Rye were cowering. I ran with him, just as the arrow sliced through the window and embedded itself into the wall where I had been standing. She had a perfect aim. If Peeta hadn't have grabbed me, I'd have an arrow through my forehead. We ran out of the house and away from the shouts of her men coming after us. Haymitch came running out to see us, and on seeing the fear on our faces beckoned us over to his house. We piled through the door, slamming it on the gaining men. Peeta and Haymitch pushed the heavy desk in front of it and lodged it under the handle. We ran up the stairs.
I could hear them pushing against it, I knew it wouldn't hold them back for long, they were obviously very well trained.
"Quick, in here!" Haymitch pushed us into his bedroom and he slammed the door. I nearly retched at the smell. Haymitch never was a hygienic person, especially not when he was intoxicated. He reached for the small phone by his bed.
"We need help!" He shouted to an anonymous person on the other end of the line. "They're here, we need you now!"
"Who's here?" I screamed, "Haymitch, who's here!" How did Haymitch know who these people were? But he wasn't listening to me, he'd run over to his window looking out over his garden. Another hovercraft had materialized, but this one had a gold mockingjay painted onto the side.
"Give me the kids!" He ordered. I didn't hesitate and passed the kids to him. The door of the hovercraft opened and he passed first Rye, and then Willow to the man inside. The men downstairs had finally broken through and were running up the stairs. I could hear the heavy thuds of their feet. There must have been five or six of them.
"Katniss quick!" I sprinted to the window and jumped across the gap into the hovercraft, landing on my stomach and sliding along the shiny metal. Peeta was right behind me, landing on his hands and knees before turning around to grab Haymitch's hands and pulling him in. I lay panting on the cold floor as the door closed and the faces of the angry men chasing us vanished.